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A Matter of Observation
A Matter of Observation is a short story which Johns wrote for The Children's Wonder Book in Colour published by Odhams in 1947. The story was not gathered into an anthology in Johns' lifetime and only came out in Winged Justice and Other Uncollected Stories published by Norman Wright in 2001. The cover of this book featured an illustration by Andrew Skilleter which was probably meant to depict a scene in this story. Synopsis Cedric and Mary Lockwood, two siblings who live in a village in Norfolk like birdwatching in the Norfolk Broads. For several saturdays in a row, their jaunts have been disturbed by a low flying aircraft. The brother and sister make some logical deductions about what they hear and see. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Brother and sister Cedric and Mary Lockwood enjoy bird watching and are out on the Nofolk Broads trying to spot the nest of an oyster-catcher when they are disturbed by a low flying aircraft. Cedric identifies it as a Zephyr single engine amphibian, and this would be the third saturday in a row that the aircraft has been flying low over the same spot. As they watch, the engine cuts out and the nose dips. It can't be engine trouble, three times in three weeks. The plane must be trying to land over by an old abandoned mill at Rimsby Broad. They move closer for a look but the aircraft then takes off. Well, the plane may well come again next saturday, and this time they would make sure to be waiting for it closer to the mill. The plane arrives the next week, right on schedule. Cedric and Mary see more strange things. The sails of the normally unused windmill starts to turn. Cedric surmises that it must be signalling to the aircraft. After the amphibian has landed, two men drag out a rope and tie it to the aircraft. Ten minutes later the rope is disconnected and the plane takes off. Something must be wrong. The plane was coming in from the sea and aircraft flying in from overseas ought to first land at a proper airport. What they see must be, at the very least, a breach of regulations. The siblings consider approaching Major Thompson or Henry Cresswell, the village constable but Cedric feels they haven't very much to report yet. He tells Mary that if the men at the mill intended to meet the plane again the next morning, they must already be at the mill that night. They must get close and see what the men are doing. (Here there is a break in the timeline logic. They had just seen the plane land and depart on a Saturday. They thentalk about the men spending the night at the mill in order to meet the plane which will arrive the next day, so it must be Friday night. In other words, from one sentence to the next, six days have elapsed.) So Friday night, the brother and sister creep stealthily near the mill. This is something they are good at, being experienced bird watchers. They hear voices in the mill. One man is talking about the flight next day being the last one. The boss wants to move to a new location. He doesn't want to risk using the same place for too long. The man thinks the boss was very smart to think of using the big petrol tank to carry "the stuff" in. Nobody would suspect anything but petrol in it. Cedric and Mary have heard enough and so call on Major Thompson and tell him the whole story. Cedric tells the Major that the main tank of the Zephyr could hold three hundred gallons of petrol (according to one of his books), so it could certainly carry a long of contraband. The Major immediately sees that something fishy is going in and brings the two children to see Henry Cresswell the village constable. Henry agrees that they may have "a sensation" on their hands. In a few hours, that plane would land at Rimsby for the last time. It's now or never. So Henry and Major Thompson set off for the mill. They agree that Cedric and Mary can tag along. The plane appears right on schedule and there is also a lorry with its driver this time. The two men at the mill attach something to the aircraft and this is now revealed to be a thin hose. There is a whirring sound like a pump being operated. Henry steps forward to confront the party of men. At first it looks like everything would end peacefully but one of the men at the hose pulls out a pistol and shoots Henry in the arm. The Major replies with his revolver and the man falls. The other man runs for the mill but Henry hurls his truncheon at him and knocks him to the ground. In another moment, he is handcuffed. Meanwhile the pilot tries to start his engine and get away but the Major has hauled in on the hose and beached the aircraft against the mud. The force of the engine only serves to ground it even further. The lorry driver looks like he could get away, so Cedric decides to intervene. He jumps into the cab at the same time as the driver and grabs the wheel as it starts to move. As a result, the lorry veers off the track and ends up stuck in the soft mud. He gives himself up when Henry arrives. Henry sends Cedric and Mary to tell his wife to call the inspector for a car to collect the four arrested men. It turns out that Cedric was right. The amphibian was smuggling. It met a foreign fishing boat offshore and took on contraband perfumes into its main tank which it then delivered to the mill. The leader of the operation was one Julius Vanson, who was sentenced to a long prison term as was the rest of the gang. Henry Cresswell was promoted to sergeant and Major Thompson commended for his help. Cedric and Mary received personal letters of thanks from the Air Ministry and Chief Constable of the county, congratulating them for their courage and shrewd observation which led to the arrest of the smuggling gang. Characters *Cedric Lockwood *Mary Lockwood *Major Thompson *Henry Cresswell *Julius Vanson *Joe - the pilot of the amphibian Aircraft *Zephyr amphibian Places *Elmsleigh, Norfolk *Rimsby Broad Research Notes *Note the similarity between the setting here and the climactic section of Gimlet Mops Up. Both take place at a broad in Norfolk by an abandoned mill, both involve an amphibian aircraft. The broad in Gimlet's case was Grimsby Broad. This one is Rimsby Broad. Gimlet Mops Up was published around the same time as this story. Publication History *The Children's Wonder Book in Colour, Odhams, 1947 *Collected in Winged Justice and Other Uncollected Stories, Norman Wright, 2001 References Category:Short stories Category:Other short stories Category:Uncollected stories